U.N. envoy seeks Iraq, Iran backing on Syria

SYRIA

Associated Press

Updated 1:25 pm, Wednesday, July 18, 2012

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Raghad Jihad Borghol, 10, recovers from surgery at home after she was wounded and lost a leg in the explosion of a shell dropped by an army helicopter in Kfar Nubul in the northwestern province of Idlib on July 8, 2012. International envoy Kofi Annan has arrived in Syria after admitting that his peace plan has so far failed to end nearly 16 months of carnage, as scores more die in the violence-wracked country. AFP PHOTO/LOLO/AFP/GettyImages less

Raghad Jihad Borghol, 10, recovers from surgery at home after she was wounded and lost a leg in the explosion of a shell dropped by an army helicopter in Kfar Nubul in the northwestern province of Idlib on July ... more

Photo: Lo, AFP/Getty Images

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A handout picture released by the Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network on July 10, 2012 shows fire set ablaze by anti-regime protesters in the Corniche area of Damascus on July 9, 2012. There can be no transition in Syria until President Bashar al-Assad falls, the Syrian National Council said in a statement on the eve of a visit to Moscow by the opposition group's chief. AFP PHOTO/HO/SHAAM NEWS NETWORK
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A handout picture released by the Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network on July 10, 2012 shows fire set ablaze by anti-regime protesters in the Corniche area of Damascus on July 9, 2012. There can be no ... more

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Syrian National Council representative, spokeswoman Basma Kodmani seen through a TV camera viewfinder answers a question during a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, July 10, 2012. Syrian National Council representatives are due to have a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on efforts to resolve the Syria crisis. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) less

Syrian National Council representative, spokeswoman Basma Kodmani seen through a TV camera viewfinder answers a question during a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, July 10, 2012. Syrian National ... more

Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko, Associated Press

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This citizen journalism image provided by Shaam News Network SNN, taken on Friday, July 6, 2012, purports to show Syrians chanting slogans during a demonstration in Hama, Syria. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network, SNN)THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS CITIZEN JOURNALIST IMAGE less

This citizen journalism image provided by Shaam News Network SNN, taken on Friday, July 6, 2012, purports to show Syrians chanting slogans during a demonstration in Hama, Syria. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network, ... more

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U.N. envoy seeks Iraq, Iran backing on Syria

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Baghdad --

The U.N.'s special envoy on the Syrian crisis sought to build support for his peace efforts Tuesday with the leaders of Iran and Iraq, saying President Bashar Assad has agreed to a plan to quell the bloodshed in the most violent areas of Syria and then expand the operation to the whole country.

Top diplomat Kofi Annan said at a news conference in Iran that the plan still must be presented to the Syrian opposition. But he said his talks with Assad a day earlier focused on a new approach to ending the violence, which activists say has killed more than 17,000 people since March 2011.

"(Assad) made a suggestion of building an approach from the ground up in some of the districts where we have extreme violence - to try and contain the violence in those districts and, step by step, build up and end the violence across the country," Annan told reporters in Tehran, his first step on a tour of Syria's allies. He did not elaborate on the plan.

Annan later visited Iraq and met Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to discuss ways to end the fighting.

"I think we've all watched the tragic situation in Syria, the killings, the suffering of the people," Annan said in Baghdad. "And everyone I've spoken to shares the concerns and the needs for us to stop the killing."

The conflict in Syria has defied every international attempt to bring peace, and there was no sign that the plan Annan described Tuesday will be a breakthrough. Although the Assad government's crackdown has turned the Syrian president into an international pariah, he still has the support of strong allies such as Russia, Iran and China.

There is little support for military intervention of the type that helped bring down Libya's Moammar Khadafy, and several rounds of sanctions and other attempts to isolate Assad have done little to stop the bloodshed.

Still, Annan's latest efforts to reach out to Syrian allies suggest he sees them as integral to solving the crisis.

Annan was scheduled to brief a closed meeting of the U.N. Security Council by videoconference from Geneva on Wednesday on his meeting with Assad and visits to Iran and Iraq.

The council must decide in the coming days whether to extend the mandate of the U.N. observer force in Syria, which expires on July 20.

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